An organic EL display device is arranged with a light emitting element in each pixel and displays an image by individually controlling the emitted light. A light emitting element includes a structure in which a layer (referred to herein as [light emitting layer]) including an organic EL material is sandwiched between a pair of electrodes distinguished as an anode and cathode. When electrons are injected from the cathode and holes are injected from the anode, the electrons and holes recombine in the light emission layer. In this way, light emitting atoms within the light emission layer are excited by an excess of discharged energy and then de-excited and thereby light is emitted.
In the organic EL display device, the anode in each light emitting element is arranged as a pixel electrode in each pixel and the cathode is arranged as a common electrode which bridges a plurality of pixels and is applied with a common voltage. The organic EL display device controls the light emitted by a pixel by applying the voltage of the pixel electrode to each pixel with respect to the voltage of the common electrode.
However, a light emitting layer of an organic EL display device easily degrades when infiltrated by water which leads to the occurrence of non-lit regions called dark spots. In order to solve such problems, a sealing film is arranged in many organic EL display devices in order to prevent the infiltration of water (For example, Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication 2010-027561).
In recent years, flexible display devices are being actively developed having a display region which can be bent. While a sealing layer arranged in a flexible display device has high barrier properties when arranged at high density, there is a problem whereby cracks easily occur when bent. Since cracks which occur in a sealing film can lead to an infiltration path for water, reliability of a display device decreases.
One aim of the present invention is to provide a display device with improved resistance to bending of the display device while maintaining a sealing function.